Shine a Light

2008. USA. Directed by Martin Scorsese. Scorsese’s passion for rock music and the blues is unparalleled in American cinema. Who among us has not thrilled to his use of The Rolling Stones on the soundtracks of Mean Streets, Goodfellas, Casino, and The Departed—more than ten songs in all, including three distinctly different contexts for “Gimme Shelter”? It can be said, then, that Shine a Light was 40 years in the making: a concert movie shot on the intimate stage of New York’s Beacon Theater, using multiple cameras operated by the best cinematographers in the business (Robert Richardson, Robert Elswit, and Andrew Lesnie among them), and intercut with archival footage and priceless backstage moments including the famously precise filmmaker nervously entreating the band for a playlist right before they go on. Scorsese revels in the Stones as they revel in the roots of their own music—blues, gospel, rockabilly, swamp, country, and Motown—culminating with Buddy Guy and Keith Richards trading guitar licks, opposite Mick Jagger on harmonica, in a rough, show-stopping rendition of Muddy Waters’ “Champagne and Reefer.” Courtesy Paramount. 122 min.

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